Your Right to Know

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama vowed to punish the Islamic State killers of American
journalist James Foley yesterday but said rooting out the militant group in Iraq and Syria will not
be fast or easy.

As Obama spoke, the United States was moving ahead with surveillance flights over Syria to
identify targets for a potential presidential order to launch airstrikes against Islamic State
targets, in what would be direct U.S. military intervention into a country embroiled in a
3-year-old civil war.

“America does not forget. Our reach is long. We are patient. Justice will be done,” Obama told
veterans at a convention of the American Legion in Charlotte, N.C.

Obama, who ordered airstrikes against the militant group in Iraq and is considering them for
Syria, said he would do whatever is necessary to go after those who harm Americans.

“Rooting out a cancer like ISIL won’t be easy and it won’t be quick,” he said. ISIL is the
acronym the United States uses for Islamic State.

Launching airstrikes into Syria would add an unpredictable element to the Syrian civil war, a
year after Obama stepped back from attacking the government of Syrian President Bashir Assad for
using chemical weapons on his own people.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no plan to coordinate with the Syrian
government on how to counter the threat from Islamic State. Syria has appealed for
coordination.

“As a matter of U.S. policy, we have not recognized the Assad regime as the leader of Syria.
There are no plans to change that policy, and there are no plans to coordinate with the Assad
regime as we consider this terror threat,” he said.

Obama was provoked into action by a graphic video last week showing the beheading of Foley by
Islamic State fighters. But a decision by Obama to launch airstrikes in Syria does not seem
imminent.